Context:

Alison Brie and Dave Franco are embroiled in a $17 million lawsuit regarding their upcoming film Together, which is accused of copying the 2023 indie film Better Half. StudioFest alleges that Brie and Franco's film shares significant plot similarities with Better Half, including the unique concept of characters being physically attached after a one-night stand. The lawsuit claims that the script for Better Half was sent to Brie and Franco's agents in 2020, but was declined, after which they allegedly devised a plan to produce a similar film. The producers of Better Half witnessed Together at the Sundance Film Festival and noted the striking similarities in scenes and plot details. Both films reportedly feature attempts by the conjoined characters to separate and ultimately accepting their shared existence, ending with a specific scene involving a Spice Girls album.

Dive Deeper:

• Alison Brie and Dave Franco face a $17 million lawsuit from StudioFest, alleging their film Together copies the 2023 indie film Better Half, which explores a surreal scenario of a man and woman becoming physically attached after a one-night stand.

• StudioFest claims the script for Better Half was sent to Brie and Franco's agents in 2020, who declined the offer, and accuses them of later orchestrating a plan to produce a similar film with their agency's resources.

• The lawsuit details how Better Half's producers, Jess Jacklin and Charles Beale, were shocked at Sundance Film Festival upon realizing Together shared numerous unique elements with their film, beyond common ideas or scenes.

• Central to both films is the theme of the main characters grappling with the challenges of their physical connection, exploring various methods to detach themselves, and eventually reconciling with their intertwined existence.

• A notable scene alleged in the lawsuit is a bathroom sequence where the protagonists are attached at the genitals, attempting to hide the situation from another character, with both films ending on a note involving a Spice Girls album.

• Alison Brie and Dave Franco are being sued over their film Together.

• The couple and collaborators, who have been married since 2017, have a horror film coming out in August that tells the story of a couple that gets psychically fused together.

• However, on Tuesday (May 13), an NYC-based film festival StudioFest filed a $17 million lawsuit against Alison and Dave, claiming that they copied a 2023 independent film Better Half.

• Better Half is “a surreal, satirical comedy about a man and a woman who have a one-night stand, and wake up to see that they have become literally and physically attached.” It was written and directed by Patrick Henry Phelan, and produced by Jess Jacklin and Charles Beale.

• Keep reading to find out more…

• According to the lawsuit, the casting director for Better Half sent the script to Alison and Dave‘s agents 2020, offering to have them star in the movie. However, Dave‘s agent reportedly passed. The plaintiff is now accusing Alison and Dave of constructing an “intentional scheme” to copy the film “because they wanted to produce the film themselves and have WME package the project with one of the agency’s own writers.”

• The producers for Better Half reportedly saw Together at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

• “As the audience laughed and cheered, Jacklin and Beale sat in stunned silence, their worst nightmare unfolding. Scene after scene confirmed that Defendants did not simply take ‘stock ideas’ or ‘scenes a faire’ but stole virtually every unique aspect of Better Half’s copyrightable expression,” the lawsuit reads.

• The documents also go on to detail the similarities between the two films.

• “In both Better Half and Together, the main characters struggle to navigate daily life as their physical attachment progresses and they start to control each other’s body parts. While at first they desperately search for ways to detach their bodies — from medical intervention to chainsaws— by the end, they resign themselves to their conjoined existence,” it says.

• It then describes a “strikingly similar bathroom sequence where the protagonists become attached at the genitals and attempt to hide their intimate encounter from a minor character waiting just outside,” and says that both films end with the couples pulling out a vinyl copy of the Spice Girls album “Spiceworld.”

• Watch the trailer for Together here.